Peter Thorneycroft

Peter Thorneycroft (26 July 1909-4 June 1994) was Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom from 13 January 1957 to 6 January 1958, succeeding Harold Macmillan and preceding Derick Heathcoat-Amory. He also served as the Conservative Party MP for Stafford from 9 June 1938 to 5 July 1945 (succeeding William Ormsby-Gore and preceding Stephen Swingler) and the MP for Monmouth from 30 October 1945 to 31 March 1966 (succeeding Leslie Pym and preceding Donald Anderson).

Biography
George Edward Peter Thorneycroft was born in Dunston, Staffordshire, England in 1909, and he was educated at Eton and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He wwas then a lawyer, and was elected to Parliament for the Conservative Party to represent Stafford in 1938 (Monmouth from 1945). He was President of the Board of Trade from 1951 to 1957, and his brief period as Chancellor of the Exchequer gained notoriety owing to his resignation in protest against Harold Macmillan's refusal to cut public expenditure by as much as he had recommended. Thorneycroft believed that this would have helped deal with inflation, and the rejection of the cuts so as to not offend voters set a trend in Conservative politics which lasted until Margaret Thatcher became leader in 1975. He lost his seat in 1966, but was chairman of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1981, in a conscious effort to link Thatcherism with earlier strands in party history. He died in 1994 at the age of 84.